Watchdog caucus bolsters oversight

There was nothing funny about the 2010 General Services Administration conference in Las Vegas that featured a clown, a mind reader and an overall taxpayer price tag of $820,000. Billed as a team-building exercise complete with an elaborate reception, the event has become another sad chapter on wasteful federal government spending.

Shocking examples from inspectors general reveal that:

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• The Department of Defense overpays contractors more than $1 billion every year. As of June 30, 2009, contractors were indebted to DOD for $3.1 billion in unrecovered overpayments.

• Each year, the Department of Agriculture pays $5 billion to owners of farmland who once produced subsidized crops but no longer do.

Our nation cannot afford wasteful government expenditures of any amount. Across-the-board cuts to federal spending and other deficit-reduction strategies are shrinking critical safety net programs, lifesaving medical research and even services to our veterans. Members of both parties must work together to protect federal funds from waste, fraud and abuse.

This week, we are launching the bipartisan Congressional Watchdog Caucus to bolster our commitment to oversight and to support our colleagues with the tools and resources needed to identify wasteful spending or ineffective governance.

There are specific people ready to help Congress do its job better — we need to listen to them. For example, inspectors general conduct independent and objective audits, investigations and inspections of federal agencies and programs to root out waste, fraud and abuse. The government has more than 70 IGs who make thousands of cost-saving recommendations every year, but too often their recommendation go unnoticed or ignored. Right now, there are an estimated 16,906 open and unimplemented IG recommendations that could save us $67 billion a year — that’s only $18 billion less than the across-the-board spending cuts that went into effect March 1.